Tuesday, 26 June 2018

BERL ERKES

BERL
ERKES (1902-December 1, 1933)

He was born in Chernobyl, Kiev
district, Ukraine.During the Civil War
in Soviet Russia, he served in the Red Army and participated in the
fighting.He fell into the hands of a
band of Petliura’s followers, who tortured him severely and crushed his
lungs.In the first half of the 1920s, he
served in the security organs of state, the Cheka and later in the G.P.U. [both
agencies of the Soviet secret police].For a time he was secretary for the Kharkov daily newspaper Der shtern (The star) (from 1925 he
wrote feature pieces and stories for it).He also published in the Kharkov serial, Shlakhtn (Battles).His
books include: Faynt (Hate), stories
(Kharkov: State Publ., 1930), 236 pp.; Der
15ter partey-tsuzamenfor un di ratn-boyung (The fifteenth Party congress
and Soviet construction) (Moscow-Kharkov-Minsk, 1930), 14 pp.; Fun hinter dem paroykhes, di kontr-revolyutsyonere
tetikayt fun di yidishe klerikaln (From behind the curtains, the
counter-revolutionary activities of the Jewish clerics) (Moscow, 1930), 46 pp.;
Shedikers (Destroyers), stories
(Kharkov-Kiev, 1932), 56 pp.; In
shpinvebs (In cobweb), stories (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932), 46 pp.; Ven dos dorf shloft, dertseylung (When
the village sleeps, a story) (Minsk, 1932), 26 pp.; Frontn, roman (Fronts, a novel) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932), 224 pp.; Der partsef fun klasn-soyne (The face of
a class enemy) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932), 51 pp.; Banakht af der grenets (At the border at night) (Moscow: Emes,
1933), 172 pp.; Dertseylungen
(Stories) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1934), 141 pp.; Yugnt
in kamf (Young people in the struggle), stories for children (Kharkov-Kiev,
1934), 88 pp.; Kamf (Fight), stories
(Kharkov, 1934), 129 pp.; Der kamf doyert
(The fight goes on), a novel (Moscow: Emes, 1937), 310 pp.From Russian he also translated works of
Lenin and others.He wrote under such
pen names as B. Lifshes.He suffered for
many years during his short life from tuberculosis and died of the disease in
Yalta in the Crimea where he was trying to recuperate.